The Sudan Handbook

160 thE sudan handbook

These criticisms found a new strength in 1983 when, following a

mutiny amongst southern troops at Bor deep in the south, John Garang,

a Sudan army colonel and ex-Anyanya officer, announced the formation

of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA). In the following year

SPLA attacks forced Chevron to shut down its operations in the south

and halted the work on the Jonglei Canal. It was a blow to Nimeiri, which

also brought growing criticism within the army itself. These multiple

dissatisfactions came together in another popular uprising, centred once

more on Khartoum, in 1985 when Nimeiri was out of the country. The

army could not be relied on to suppress the uprising and instead the

military leaders backed down; Nimeiri, unable to return, went into exile

in Cairo.

Nimeiri’s downfall reflected not only discontent over the re-opening

of civil war in the south and the imposition of harsh Islamic law in the

north, but also judgement on the economic and social record of his

years in power. Sudan’s economy had largely failed to grow. The most

lasting monument to Arab investment was the giant sugar scheme at

Kenana, but even that was of arguable significance for the economy as

a whole. Sudan was left mired in debt on a scale far greater than it had

ever experienced before. Hopes of wealth from oil had been dashed by

the renewal of civil war. Yet Nimeiri and those around him were widely

believed to have made considerable personal gains, often by corrupt

means. Thus the gap between rich and poor grew, a situation emphasized

when famine struck the western regions of Kordofan and Darfur in the

early 1980s. The government did little or nothing to alleviate the suffer-

ings of Darfuris. Many died before international assistance arrived. At

the same time Sudan’s middle class was shrinking; many left the country

especially for the Gulf states where their comparatively high educational

level opened many doors.

Nimeiri’s regime maintained the narrow base of Sudanese political

life. He and many of his entourage were from families originally from

the riverain areas north of Khartoum. Those from other parts continued

to feel excluded. The re-division of the country into over twenty states

The Sudan Handbook, edited by John Ryle, Justin Willis, Suliman Baldo and Jok Madut Jok. © 2011 Rift Valley Institute and contributors was seen as an attempt, not to improve administration, but rather to

(www.riftvalley.net).